Effect of the Number of Loading Cycles on the Behavior of

a Stabilized Fiber-Reinforced Soft Soil: Energy Evaluation

Ligia A. Martins 1; Antonio A. S. Correia 2; Paulo J. Venda Oliveira 3; and Luís J. L. Lemos 4

Abstract: When a material is subjected to cyclic loading, there are changes in the material’s geomechanical behavior that need to be known
and characterized for a safe design. To this end, a series of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests was performed, with and without
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the application of cyclic loading, to study the effect of the number of loading cycles on the behavior of a soft soil stabilized with different
binder contents, unreinforced and reinforced with polypropylene fibers. The results were analyzed in terms of the evolution of elastic and
plastic deformation energy, and it was observed that plastic energy prevailed in the first cycles, but decreased with the increase in the number
of loading cycles. The accumulated plastic deformation occurring during the cyclic loading induced a strain-hardening effect that was respon-
sible for the increase in the undrained resilient modulus and in the postcyclic unconfined compressive strength, regardless of the binder
content and fiber reinforcement. The addition of polypropylene fibers led to a reduction in the elastic deformation energy, which was more
noticeable in the first cycles, leading to an increase in the accumulated plastic axial strains and to a reduction in the undrained resilient
modulus during the cyclic loading. These facts are explained by the high compressibility of the fibers and by the weakening of the
stabilized matrix as a result of the physical presence of the fibers which may prevent the development of some cementitious bonds.
However, the addition of fibers led to an increase in the energy absorption capacity, explained by the fact that the deformations
occurring during the cyclic loading allow an earlier mobilization of the fibers as the UCS test proceeds. DOI: 10.1061/JMCEE7.
MTENG-15231. © 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Stabilized soil; Reinforced soil; Cyclic loading; Energy; Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test; Polypropylene
fibers.

Introduction
One of the techniques that has been successfully applied to improve
the geomechanical behavior of soils is chemical stabilization, in
which the natural soil is mixed in situ with chemical stabilizers such
as portland cement, quicklime, fly ash, and slag (Abdullah et al.
2020; Åhnberg 2006; Basha et al. 2005; Consoli et al. 2007, 2011b;
Corrêa-Silva et al. 2020; Correia 2011; Correia et al. 2019, 2021;
Horpibulsuk 2001; Horpibulsuk et al. 2003, 2005; Kamruzzaman
et al. 2009; Kitazume and Terashi 2013; Lorenzo and Bergado
2004, 2006; Rios et al. 2016; Venda Oliveira et al. 2013, 2014).
Despite the enhancement achieved, in general the composite
material is characterized by brittle behavior and poor tensile
strength. The inclusion of randomly distributed fibers (synthetic
or natural) to the stabilized soil has the potential to increase the
1
Ph.D. Student, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Coimbra, R. Luís
Reis Santos, Coimbra 3030-788, Portugal. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000
-0002-5232-5419. Email: uc2020142548@student.uc.pt
2
Assistant Professor, Chemical Process Engineering and Forest Products
Research Centre, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Coimbra, R. Luís Reis
Santos, Coimbra 3030-788, Portugal (corresponding author). ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3260-8729. Email: aalberto@dec.uc.pt
3
Associated Professor with Aggregation, Institute for Sustainability and
Innovation in Structural Engineering, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of
Coimbra, R. Luís Reis Santos, Coimbra 3030-788, Portugal. ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8515-8664. Email: pjvo@dec.uc.pt
4
Full Professor, CGeo, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Coimbra,
R. Luís Reis Santos, Coimbra 3030-788, Portugal. Email: llemos@dec.uc.pt
NOTE.This manuscript was submitted on July 15, 2022; approved on
March 1, 2023; published online on August 24, 2023. Discussion period
open until January 24, 2024; separate discussions must be submitted for
individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Materials in Civil
Engineering, © ASCE, ISSN 0899-1561.
tensile strength, change the behavior to being more ductile, and
reduce the loss of the postpeak strength (Abbaspour et al. 2020;
Akbari et al. 2021; Consoli et al. 2009, 2011a, c, 2013a, b; Correia
et al. 2015, 2017, 2019; Falorca and Pinto 2011; Güllü and Khudir
2014; Kumar and Gupta 2016; Lemos et al. 2021; Olgun 2013;
Park 2011; Plé and Lê 2012; Soltani et al. 2018; Sukontasukkul
and Jamsawang 2012; Tabassum and Bheemasetti 2022; Tang
et al. 2007; Tinoco et al. 2016; Venda Oliveira et al. 2016; Yetimoglu
and Salbas 2003; Yilmaz 2009; Zaimoglu and Yetimoglu 2012).
The cited studies have shown that the enhancement of the geome-
chanical behavior of fiber-reinforced stabilized soil depends on the
soil type, the content and type of fiber and binder, and the temper-
ature and failure mechanism imposed.
When a dynamic loading (induced by road and/or rail traffic,
industrial equipment, sea waves, wind loads, earthquakes, and
so forth) is applied to a fiber-reinforced stabilized soil, there are
changes in the material’s behavior that need to be characterized
and understood. To date, the knowledge of such behavior still is
limited (mainly focused on granular unreinforced materials), and
sometimes the results are inconsistent. Dall’Aqua et al. (2010)
and Venda Oliveira et al. (2017, 2018) observed an increase in the
plastic deformations induced by cyclic loading, with the most
significant increase occurring during the first loading cycles. In
contrast, Chauhan et al. (2008) found a sharp increase in the plastic
deformations for a high number of loading cycles. Based on cyclic
tests, Ahmed and El Naggar (2018) and Narani et al. (2021) studied
the effect of adding waste tire fibers to a stabilized soil, and
observed that the compressive strength decreased as the number
of loading cycles increased, whereas Festugato et al. (2013),
Khattak and Alrashidi (2006), and Venda Oliveira et al. (2018) re-
ported an increase in the shear, compressive, and tensile strengths
when polypropylene (PP) fibers were added to stabilized soils.

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 Although Narani et al. (2021) and Venda Oliveira et al. (2022) re-
ported that the addition of fibers decreases the plastic strain and
minimizes the compressive peak-strength loss under cyclic loading,
Narani et al. observed that the stiffness decreases with the cyclic
loading, whereas Venda Oliveira et al. noted the opposite.
The energy concept has been applied to geotechnical problems
mainly to interpret the behavior of cohesionless soils (e.g., their
densification and liquefaction) under dynamic loadings such as
those imposed by earthquakes (Lenart 2008; Sas et al. 2017). The
energy concept states that a material under a load deforms, and this
deformation corresponds to a release or dissipation of energy
(Lenart 2008; Sas et al. 2017; Xia et al. 2021). The energy dissi-
pated may be evaluated experimentally from the stress–strain
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but may provide new insights on the subject. Thus, the aim of this
work was to add to the existing knowledge of the behavior of a
stabilized fiber-reinforced soft soil under cyclic loading, thereby
contributing to an effective future application of such composite
materials.
This work analyzed the effect of the number of loading cycles
on the compressive and postcyclic behavior of a stabilized soft soil,
unreinforced and reinforced with polypropylene fibers. The con-
cept of elastic and plastic deformation energy was applied to better
understand the effects of the cyclic loading and the reinforcement
with fibers on the accumulated plastic deformations and on the
stress–strain behavior of the composite material. These effects are
the core subject and novelty of this study. To achieve these goals, an
experimental testing program was designed and complemented

curve, and corresponds to the area below the curve (Choobbasti and
Kutanaei 2017; Lenart 2008; Narani et al. 2020, 2021; Sas et al. with an in-house algorithm developed to compute the deformation
2017). In a dynamic or cyclic loading, there are stress–strain hys- energy. The testing program was based on (1) monotonic uncon-
teresis loops from which it is possible to evaluate the dissipated fined compressive strength (UCS) tests performed with samples not
(plastic) energy, which is equal to the area inside the hysteresis subjected to cyclic loading; (2) unconfined compressive cyclic
loop, whereas the elastic (recovered) energy is equal to the area loading (Cyc) tests; and (3) and postcyclic UCS tests (UCSpc).
Table 1 briefly describes the experimental testing plan.
under the unloading curve (Sas et al. 2017). The energy concept
has been applied to a very small number of fiber-reinforced stabi-
lized soils under cyclic loading. Narani et al. (2021) performed
cyclic loading tests with displacement control to study the effect Materials
of the inclusion of tire fibers in a low-plasticity sandy-clay stabilized
with portland cement and found that: (1) the plastic energy was Characteristics of the Soil
higher for the first cycles, and decreased sharply with the increase
The soil selected for this study was an organic soft soil from the
in the number of loading cycles; (2) the plastic energy increased
Baixo Mondego region, near the city of Coimbra in the center of
with the cement content because cement stabilization leads to a more
Portugal, collected from a depth of 2–3 m (below the water table).
uniform and rigid solid skeleton with the ability to absorb more en- The soil was classified as soft soil in previous works performed at the
ergy; and (3) the addition of fibers promoted a decrease in plastic University of Coimbra (Coelho and Lemos 2017; Hindle 1994;
energy because part of the deformation applied to the samples was Lemos and Soares 1995; Phillipson 1994; Venda Oliveira et al.
absorbed by the fibers and less energy was transferred to the soil 2004, 2010). The soil was classified according to the Unified Soil
matrix, resulting in less degradation of the composite material. Classification System (ASTM 1998) as a high plasticity organic silt
Despite the research to date, the impact of the number of loading (OH) with an organic matter content of 9.5%. Its chemical compo-
cycles on the behavior of a stabilized soft soil reinforced with fibers sition revealed a high silica (SiO2 ) and alumina (Al2 O3 ) content
has not been studied properly. In addition, the analysis in terms of (59% and 17%, respectively), which means that the soil has signifi-
deformation energy is an important feature that is less discussed, cant pozzolanic properties (Janz and Johansson 2002). The physical
and chemical properties of the soil are presented in Tables 2 and 3.
Table 1. Experimental testing plan (UCS, Cyc, and UCSpc): number of
tests Characteristics of the Binder and the Fibers
Monotonic-stage Cyclic-stage The binder chosen for this research was portland cement Type I
binder quantity binder quantity
42.5 R [EN 197-1 (CEN 2000)], characterized by the chemical
(kg=m3 ) (kg=m3 )
Type composition presented in Table 4. It corresponds to a hydraulic
Type of fibers of test 100 175 250 325 100 175 250 325 binder, with fast strength development, exhibiting at 7 curing days
Unreinforced UCS 6 6 6 6 — — — — more than 80% of the strength developed at 28 days according to
Cyc — — — — 3 3 3 3
UCSpc — — — — 3 3 3 3
Table 3. Chemical characterization of soft soil
Polypropylene UCS 6 6 6 6 — — — —
Total
fibers Cyc — — — — 3 3 3 3
organic
(10 kg=m3 ) UCSpc — — — — 3 3 3 3
Loss on SiO2 Al2 O3 Fe2 O3 CaO MgO Na2 O K2 O carbon
Note: UCS = monotonic UCS test without a cyclic stage; Cyc = unconfined pH ignition (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (TOC) (%)
compressive cyclic test; and UCSpc = monotonic UCS test carried out after
4.6 9 59 17 4.9 0.4 1.1 0.83 3.1 3.46
the cyclic stage.

Table 2. Physical characterization of soft soil

Organic matter
Mineralogical composition Gs (g=cm3 ) wnat (%) Grain size (%) Plasticity (%) content (OM) (%)
Quartz, muscovite, albite, microcline, 2.57 80.9 Clay ¼ 12 wP ¼ 44.9 9.5
smectite, ilite, kaolinite, and magnesium chlorite Silt ¼ 77 wL ¼ 72.2
Sand ¼ 11 PI ¼ 27.3

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 Table 4. Main characteristics of binder portland cement type I 42.5 R 5. After the curing time had elapsed, the samples were removed
(manufacturer’s data) from the molds and the surfaces were trimmed to obtain samples
Property Value with a height of 76 mm.
6. The samples were weighed and positioned in a dynamic triaxial
CaO (%) 62.9
SiO2 (%) 19.0
apparatus for testing.
Al2 O3 (%) 5.2 The aim of the UCS tests was to define the mechanical charac-
Fe2 O3 (%) 3.2 teristics under monotonic conditions, and they were carried out at
SO2 (%) 3.1 a constant strain rate of 1%=min according to the standard BSI
MgO (%) 2.2 (1990). This strain rate is very fast, and thus the samples were
K2 O (%) 1.3 tested at close to an undrained condition. The UCS cyclic loading
Blaine specific surface (m2 =kg) 326.3 tests were carried out for a deviatoric stress level of 50% of the
maximum unconfined compressive strength (qu max ) defined in
the monotonic UCS test, with an amplitude of 10% of qu max
(inducing a safety factor ranging from 1.66 to 2.5), a frequency
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Table 5. Main characteristics of polypropylene fibers (manufacturer’s
data)
Property Value
Length, L (mm) 12
Diameter, D (μm) 32
Aspect ratio (L=D) 375
Tensile strength 250
Elasticity modulus 3.5–3.9
Surface texture roughnessa Lower
Biodegradability Not biodegradable
Density (g=cm3 ) 0.91
a
Data from Agboola et al. (2021).
the manufacturer’s data. Due to the high organic matter content and
the acid pH of the soil, and the fact that the moisture content of the
natural soil was higher than the liquidity limit (wnat ¼ 80.9% >
wL ¼ 72.2%) the portland cement was applied in quantities of 100,
175, 250, and 325 kg=m3 (dry weight of cement per cubic meter of
soil), equivalent to binder contents of 12%, 21%, 30%, and 39%
(dry weight ratio of binder to soil).
For the reinforced samples, polypropylene fibers were selected
as reinforcing elements. The fibers had a length of 12 mm and a
diameter of 32 μm, presenting a very high aspect ratio but a lower
surface roughness (Table 5). The fibers were added to the chemi-
cally stabilized soft soil in a quantity of 10 kg=m3 (dry weight of
fibers per cubic meter of soil), corresponding to a fiber content of
1.2% (weight ratio of dry fiber to dry soil).
Sample Preparation and Testing
The samples of the chemically stabilized soft soil with or without
the inclusion of the polypropylene fibers were prepared based on
the laboratory procedure described by EuroSoilStab (2001) and
Correia (2011), which is summarized as follows:
1. A specific amount of fibers was separated using compressed air.
2. All the materials used (soil, cement, and/or fibers) were weighed
and mixed using a mechanical mixer at a speed of 142 rpm for
4 min to obtain a homogeneous paste and minimize the exper-
imental variability. For the fiber-reinforced samples, the fibers
were added gradually during the first minute of mixing.
3. The mixture was introduced into PVC molds (37-mm diameter,
85-mm height) and dynamically compacted in three layers. For
each layer, the mold was tapped (hit) 20 times by hand against a
wooden table (the conformity criterion was that the range of
variation of the individual weights of the samples which should
not exceed 1% of the mean value).
4. The samples were cured under water for 28 days inside a room
with temperature control (20°C  2°C).
of 0.5 Hz [reproducing the passage of a car (Milliken et al. 1995)],
and applying 5,000 loading cycles (CEN 2004). After the cyclic
loading stage, the samples were unloaded and a monotonic UCS
test (postcyclic) was carried out to analyze the effect of the cyclic
loading on the mechanical behavior of the samples. Both the UCS
and cycling loading tests were carried out in a dynamic triaxial
testing system.
To guarantee the reliability of the study, six replicate samples
were considered for the UCS tests and three replicate samples were
considered for the UCS cyclic loading tests for each experimental
condition (with or without fibers; binder quantity of 100, 175, 250,
and 325 kg=m3 ) (Table 1). The requirement that each individual
unconfined compressive strength result must be within the range
10% of the average value was adopted as the conformity or com-
pliance criterion, which is more demanding than that specified in
the standard (CEN 2007), i.e., 15%.
Analysis of the Results
The experimental nature of the study implies the occurrence of
some variability in the results, which should be characterized. In
terms of the unconfined compressive strength, the maximum vari-
ability observed between the individual strength values and the re-
spective average was 7.9% and 5.3% for the UCS and UCSpc
tests, respectively. These values are not very significant, and are
within the compliance criterion adopted (10%) and are consistent
with other studies focused on stabilized materials reinforced with
fibers (Consoli et al. 2010; Correia et al. 2015; Duong et al. 2021;
Huang et al. 2020; Khattak and Alrashidi 2006; Venda Oliveira
et al. 2016, 2018, 2022). The maximum variability of the maximum
permanent axial strain measured during the cyclic stage was
9.0%, which is not significant. The results presented throughout
this work refer to the test with the values closest to the average.
Cyclic Loading Stage: Permanent Axial Strain
Fig. 1 shows the evolution of the accumulated permanent (plastic)
axial strain (εa accum ) with the number of loading cycles for the
different binder quantities studied and for both stabilized materi-
als, i.e., unreinforced and fiber-reinforced. The analysis of the re-
sults shows a similar evolution of the accumulated permanent
axial strain for a binder quantity in the range 175–325 kg=m3
and independent of reinforcement with fibers, characterized by
a rapid increase in axial strain in the first 100 loading cycles, fol-
lowed by a smooth increase for a greater number of loading
cycles, evolving asymptotically to a constant value. The samples
stabilized with the lowest binder quantity (100 kg=m3 ) had a
distinct behavior characterized by a continuous increase in the ac-
cumulated permanent axial strain during the cyclic stage. Further-
more, the addition of the fibers to the stabilized samples led to an

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 Number of cycles
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
0

0.5

qu (kPa)
εa accum. (%)

1 Plastic
Energy
325 kg/m³
1.5 Elastic
250 kg/m³
175 kg/m³ Energy
100 kg/m³
2 325 kg/m³ + PP
250 kg/m³ + PP
175 kg/m³ + PP
100 kg/m³ + PP εa (%)
2.5
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Fig. 3. Definition of deformation energy calculation for one cycle load-

Fig. 1. (Color) Evolution of the accumulated permanent axial strain
ing (stress–strain hysteresis loop).
with the number of loading cycles without and with fibers.

2.50 deformation energy was analyzed. Therefore, the elastic and plastic
without fibers with fibers
10 cycles
deformation energies of each stress–strain hysteresis loop were
2.00 500 cycles evaluated. The plastic deformation energy is equal to the area
1000 cycles (density) inside the hysteresis loop, whereas the elastic deformation
5000 cycles energy is equal to the area (density) under the unloading curve
εa accum. (%)

1.50
(Choobbasti and Kutanaei 2017; Narani et al. 2021; Ostadan et al.
1996; Sas et al. 2017) (Fig. 3). These calculations were made using
1.00 numerical integration and trapezoidal rule integration [the latter as
suggested by Lenart (2008)] in MATLAB version R2019a software
0.50
with an in-house algorithm. The results using each of the integra-
tion techniques were very close to each other, with a time advantage
for the trapezoidal rule integration. The expression used to calculate
0.00 both energies based on the trapezoidal rule integration of both sec-
100 175 250 325
tions of the hysteresis loop is (Azeiteiro et al. 2017)
Cement Quantity (kg/m³)

Fig. 2. Effect of binder quantity and reinforcement with polypropylene Z Z X

k−1
1 ðiþ1Þ ðiÞ
fibers on the accumulated permanent axial strain for a different number δW ¼ σdε ¼ qdεa ≈ ðqðiÞ þ qðiþ1Þ Þðεa − εa Þ
of loading cycles. k i¼1
2
ð1Þ

increase in the accumulated permanent axial strain, an effect that
tended to be attenuated with the increase in the number of loading
cycles (Fig. 2). As expected, the accumulated permanent axial
strain decreased as the binder quantity increased (Figs. 1 and 2),
reflecting the fact that a larger amount of binder promotes the
production of cementitious products from the physicochemical
reactions, leading to a stronger and stiffer stabilized matrix, in
accordance with other works (Correia et al. 2015; Kaniraj and
Havanagi 2001; Kumar et al. 2007; Olgun 2013). Moreover, the
results seem to indicate that the addition of the fibers may prevent
the development of some cementitious bonds within the stabi-
lized matrix, thereby producing a composite material with lower
strength and stiffness, and therefore the fiber-reinforced stabilized
material will experience more axial strains during the cyclic load-
ing. The resulting effect of the addition of fibers decreased as the
amount of binder increased because the amount of fibers added
was constant in all fiber-reinforced stabilized samples, i.e., the
relative fiber importance decreased.
Cyclic Loading Stage: Deformation Energy Evaluation
As stated previously, to bring new insights into the cyclic loading
behavior of stabilized unreinforced and fiber-reinforced soils,
This methodology was carried out for any number of cycles.
The results are presented in Figs. 4–6.
Fig. 4 presents the evolution of the deformation energy density
with the number of loading cycles for the unreinforced and fiber-
reinforced stabilized materials. In both materials, plastic deforma-
tion energy prevailed in the first cycles, but decreased with the
increase in the number of loading cycles. In contrast, the elastic
deformation energy increased with the number of loading cycles,
increasing sharply during the first 10 cycles. This behavior is more
easily perceptible when analyzing the evolution of the plastic and
elastic deformation energies with the number of loading cycles
(Figs. 5 and 6, respectively). In the first loading cycles, the energy
applied by the external cyclic load mostly dissipated as plastic
energy, and whatever remained was absorbed by the composite
material as elastic energy, a trend that quickly reversed as the num-
ber of cycles increased. The plastic energy is associated with several
dissipation mechanisms related to the frictional sliding at particles
contacts, a viscous volumetric change induced by pore fluid move-
ment, particle breakage (Johnson et al. 2021; Lenart 2008; Narani
et al. 2020; Okur and Ansal 2011; Sas et al. 2017; Xia et al. 2021),
and the breaking of interparticle (cementitious) bonds. For the
stabilized materials studied here, the breakage of the cementitious
bonds seems to have been the dominant dissipation mechanism,
which induced irrecoverable deformations of the solid skeleton,

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 100 100
Energy density (kPa)

10 10

elastic plastic
1 1

0.1 0.1

0.01 0.01
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 10 20 30 40 50
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Number of cycles Number of cycles

(a) (b)

100 100
Energy density (kPa)

10 10

elastic plastic
1 1

0.1 0.1

0.01 0.01
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 0 10 20 30 40 50
Number of cycles Number of cycles
(c) (d)

Fig. 4. (Color) Evolution of deformation energy density (elastic and plastic) with the number of loading cycles: (a) without fibers; (b) without fibers—
magnification of first 50 loading cycles; (c) with fibers; and (d) with fibers—magnification of first 50 loading cycles.

i.e., permanent axial strains (Figs. 1 and 2). For the cyclic load
applied (50%  10% of qu max ), this dissipation mechanism was
more intense the smaller the binder content was, meaning that a
sample stabilized with a lower quantity of binder (less stiff) dissi-
pated more energy [higher relative plastic deformation energy
(Fig. 5)] during the breakage of the cementitious bonds, leading
to greater permanent axial strains. As the number of loading cycles
increased, and as a result of the changes in the fabric induced by the
breakage of the cementitious bonds, the material was able to absorb
more elastic energy in relative terms (Fig. 6). After some number of
cycles (10–100), the stabilized material achieved a quasi-steady
hysteretic response, with a relative plastic deformation energy on
the order of 10%–20% and a relative elastic deformation energy
ranging between 90% and 80% (Figs. 4–6).
Analysis of the results also shows that the addition of the fibers
led to an increase in the plastic deformation energy (or a reduction
in the elastic deformation energy), which was more noticeable in
the first cycles, leading to the increase in the accumulated plastic
deformations (axial strains) during the cyclic loading for the fiber-
reinforced stabilized soil, in agreement with Figs. 1 and 2. This
increase in plastic deformation energy can be explained by two
cumulative effects: the high compressibility of the polypropylene
fibers (Narani et al. 2020); and the weakening of the stabilized ma-
trix as a result of the physical presence of the fibers, which may
prevent the development of some cementitious bonds, producing
a composite material with lower strength and stiffness.
For both of the stabilized materials, i.e., unreinforced and fiber-
reinforced, the transference of energy from plastic to elastic oc-
curred more markedly in the first cycles, evolving rapidly (after
10–100 cycles) to a quasi steady-state level. Thus, for the materials
and testing conditions studied here, 100 loading cycles seemed to
be sufficient to study the influence of the cyclic loading. Moreover,
except for the samples stabilized with the lowest binder content, as
the number of loading cycles increased, the increment of the plastic
deformation caused by each cycle decreased gradually, i.e., the rate
of the plastic deformation decreased during the cyclic loading,
which seems to be in agreement with the plastic shakedown or plas-
tic creep shakedown concept developed for unbound granular soils
under cyclic loading (Lenart 2008; Narani et al. 2020; Sas et al.
2017; Werkmeister 2006). However, more research is required to
verify such concepts and to set the thresholds of the shakedown
theory for stabilized (or bounded) materials.
Cyclic Loading Stage: Evolution of the Resilient
Modulus
The cyclic loading behavior of the stabilized unreinforced and
fiber-reinforced samples was analyzed in terms of the evolution
of the resilient modulus. The undrained resilient modulus was

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 100 100

90 90

80 80
100 kg/m³
70 70
Plastic Energy (%)

Plastic Energy (%)

175 kg/m³ 100 kg/m³ + PP
60 250 kg/m³ 60 175 kg/m³ + PP
325 kg/m³ 250 kg/m³ + PP
50 50
325 kg/m³ + PP
40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10

0 0
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1 10 100 1000 1 10 100 1000

(a) Number of cycles (b) Number of cycles

(c)

Fig. 5. (Color) Evolution of the plastic deformation energy (expressed in relative terms) with the number of loading cycles: (a) without fibers; (b) with
fibers; and (c) for cycles 2, 5, 500, and 5,000.

defined as the slope of the stress–strain hysteresis loop (Fig. 7), and
the results are presented in Fig. 8. The undrained resilient modulus
increased (i.e., the inclination of the hysteresis loop toward the
x-axis increased) with the number of loading cycles, independently
of the binder content and the presence of the fibers. Thus, the re-
sults suggest that the deformation that occurs during the cyclic
loading seems to promote a strain-hardening effect [similar to what
occurs for unstabilized granular soils, Xia et al. (2021)] that is
responsible for the increase in the resilient modulus. The strain-
hardening effect is compatible with the evolution of the plastic de-
formation energy (Figs. 4 and 5), which decreased asymptotically
as the cyclic loading test proceeded. The results also show that the
undrained resilient modulus increased with the binder quantity,
meaning that a composite material stabilized with a higher binder
content had the ability to absorb a higher elastic deformation en-
ergy (Figs. 4 and 6).
The same trend was observed for the fiber-reinforced stabilized
samples, but the addition of the fibers led to a slight reduction in
the undrained resilient modulus compared with that of the corre-
sponding unreinforced stabilized sample. This reduction was be-
cause the fiber-reinforced stabilized matrix is characterized by a
lower stiffness induced by a higher compressibility of the fibers
and because the fibers may prevent some cementitious bonds
between the soil particles.
Monotonic Stress–Strain Behavior
Figs. 9 and 10 show the stress–strain curves from the unconfined
compressive strength tests performed before and immediately after
the cyclic stage for different binder quantities for the stabilized
unreinforced and fiber-reinforced samples. The unconfined com-
pressive strength (qu max ) and stiffness increased with the binder
quantity, and the behavior became more fragile, characterized by
a clear peak failure and an abrupt loss of strength after peak (Fig. 9)
(Consoli et al. 2009; Correia et al. 2015, 2017; Horpibulsuk 2001;
Narani et al. 2021; Olgun 2013; Sukontasukkul and Jamsawang
2012). The addition of polypropylene fibers (at 10 kg=m3 ) changed
the stress–strain behavior of the composite material, in agreement
with the findings of Consoli et al. (2009), Correia et al. (2015), and
Olgun (2013). At the lower binder quantities (100 and 175 kg=m3 )
there was an increase in compressive strength, whereas the opposite
occurred for larger binder quantities (250 and 325 kg=m3 ), Fig. 11.
The postpeak strength loss was almost zero or was relatively small
with lower binder quantities (100 and 175 kg=m3 ), whereas a sig-
nificant postpeak strength loss occurred with higher (250 and
325 kg=m3 ) binder quantities. There was a nonnegligible residual
strength, and the behavior was more ductile the lower the binder
quantity was. Such behavior is explained by the fact that for lower
binder quantities (100 and 175 kg=m3 ), failure was associated with
higher levels of strain allowing the mobilization of the fibers’

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 100 100

90 90

80 80

70 70

Elastic Energy (%)

Elastic Energy (%)

60 60

50 50
325 kg/m³ 40 325 kg/m³ + PP
40
250 kg/m³ 250 kg/m³ + PP
30 30 175 kg/m³ + PP
175 kg/m³
20 100 kg/m³ 20 100 kg/m³ + PP

10 10

0 0
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1 10 100 1000 1 10 100 1000

(a) Number of cycles (b) Number of cycles

(c)

Fig. 6. (Color) Evolution of the elastic deformation energy (expressed in relative terms) with the number of loading cycles: (a) without fibers; (b) with
fibers; and (c) for cycles 2, 5, 500, and 5,000.

tensile strength, whereas for the higher binder quantities (250 and in monotonic stress up to a deviatoric stress level equal to 50% of
325 kg=m3 ), failure occurred before the effective mobilization of qu max , the cyclic loading stage, the unloading, and the postcyclic
the fibers. UCS test. Independently of the binder quantity and for both of
Fig. 10 presents the stress–strain changes experienced by the the stabilized materials, unreinforced and fiber-reinforced, the
samples under the UCS cyclic loading test, i.e., the initial increase cyclic loading led to an increase in the unconfined compressive
strength (Fig. 11). This increment was greater for the lower binder
quantities which had greater deformations during the cyclic stage
(Fig. 1), i.e., in which the strain hardening effect seemed to be more
Mu_2 Mu_10 Mu_100 pronounced. The addition of fibers led to the same changes as for
1 1 1
the UCS tests performed before the cyclic stage.
The stress–strain behavior of all samples was analyzed in terms of
energy absorption capacity (EAC), i.e., the energy required to induce
deformation in the composite material (Choobbasti and Kutanaei
qu (kPa)

2017; Patel and Singh 2017). The energy absorption capacity is

equal to the area below the stress–strain curve (Choobbasti and
Kutanaei 2017; Kafodya and Okonta 2021; Patel and Singh 2017),
and was computed for equal axial strain, considering the value of the
composite material with the highest axial strain at failure (εa failure ¼
6.55% for the fiber-reinforced sample stabilized with 100 kg=m3
portland cement and tested without cyclic loading). The EAC in-
εa (%) creased with the binder quantity (Fig. 12), reflecting the fact that
a greater binder quantity induces a stronger and stiffer solid matrix,
Fig. 7. Definition of undrained resilient modulus (Mu ).
in agreement with the increase in the undrained resilient modulus

© ASCE 04023392-7 J. Mater. Civ. Eng.

J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2023, 35(11): 04023392

 14000

12000
325 kg/m³

10000 325 kg/m³ + PP

250 kg/m³

Mu (kPa)
8000
250 kg/m³ + PP
6000 175 kg/m³
175 kg/m³ + PP
4000
100 kg/m³
2000
100 kg/m³ + PP
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0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
(a) Number of cycles

(b)
Fig. 8. (Color) (a) Evolution of the undrained resilient modulus with the number of loading cycles; and (b) evolution of the undrained resilient
modulus for cycles 2, 5, 500, and 5,000.

3500 3500

3000 3000 325 kg/m³ + PP

250 kg/m³ + PP
2500 2500
175 kg/m³ + PP
325 kg/m³
100 kg/m³ + PP
qu (kPa)

qu (kPa)

2000 250 kg/m³ 2000

175 kg/m³
1500 1500
100 kg/m³
1000 1000

500 500

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
(a) εa (%) (b) εa (%)

Fig. 9. Effect of binder quantity and reinforcement with polypropylene fibers on the stress–strain behavior of the UCS tests: (a) without fibers; and
(b) with fibers.

and greater elastic deformation energy. The deformation that oc- an increase in the EAC, because as the UCS test proceeded (i.e., as
curred during the cyclic loading stage (Fig. 1) promoted a strain- the axial strain increased) there was a progressive mobilization of the
hardening effect responsible for the increase in the energy absorption tensile strength of the fibers responsible for the ductile behavior, and
capacity of the composite materials. The addition of the fibers led to therefore failure occurred at higher levels of strains, allowing the

© ASCE 04023392-8 J. Mater. Civ. Eng.

J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2023, 35(11): 04023392

 3500 3500

3000 3000 325 kg/m³ + PP Cyc.

325 kg/m³ Cyc.
250 kg/m³ Cyc. 250 kg/m³ + PP Cyc.
2500 2500
175 kg/m³ Cyc. 175 kg/m³ + PP Cyc.
qu (kPa)

qu (kPa)
2000 2000 100 kg/m³ + PP Cyc.
100 kg/m³ Cyc.
1500 1500

1000 1000

500 500

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
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(a) εa (%) (b) εa (%)

Fig. 10. Effect of binder quantity and reinforcement with polypropylene fibers on the stress–strain behavior of the UCS tests after the cyclic stage:
(a) without fibers; and (b) with fibers.

composite material to absorb more energy, in agreement with the because the deformations that occurred during the cyclic loading
findings of Choobbasti and Kutanaei (2017), Maher and Ho (Fig. 1) allowed earlier mobilization of the fibers, in addition to
(1993), and Patel and Singh (2017). This effect was more pro- the strain-hardening effect.
nounced in the samples submitted to a prior cyclic loading stage
Conclusions
4000
The results of the unconfined compressive strength tests performed
3500 on stabilized unreinforced and fiber-reinforced samples subjected
3000
or not to a prior cyclic loading stage (50%  10% of qu max , applied
with a frequency of 0.5 Hz and during 5,000 loading cycles), al-
Max
qu máx (kPa)

2500 Average lowed the authors to reach the following conclusions:

Min 1. During cyclic loading, the accumulated permanent axial strain
2000
decreases as the binder quantity increases because a larger
1500 amount of binder leads to a stronger and stiffer stabilized matrix.
1000 2. The energy applied by the external cyclic load in the first load-
ing cycles mostly is dissipated as plastic energy, and the remain-
500 ing energy is absorbed by the composite material as elastic
0 energy, a trend that quickly reverses as the number of cycles
100 175 250 325 increases. After a low number of cycles (10–100) the stabilized
Cement quantity (kg/m³) material achieves a quasi-steady hysteretic response, with the
relative elastic deformation energy ranging between 90% and
Fig. 11. Effect of binder quantity and reinforcement with polypropy- 80%. The breakage of the cementitious bonds seems to be
lene fibers on the unconfined compressive strength of tests carried out the dominant dissipation mechanism inducing irrecoverable
before (UCS) and after (UCSpc) the cyclic stage. (plastic) deformations of the solid skeleton, which are more in-
tense the lower the binder content.
3. The deformation occurring during the cyclic loading seems to
promote a strain-hardening effect which is responsible for the
increase in the resilient modulus. The undrained resilient modu-
lus increases with the binder quantity, meaning that a composite
material stabilized with a higher binder content has the ability to
absorb a higher elastic deformation energy.
4. The addition of fibers leads to an increase in the plastic defor-
mation energy, which is more noticeable in the first cycles, lead-
ing to an increase in the accumulated plastic axial strains and to
a reduction of the undrained resilient modulus during the cyclic
loading, which is explained by two cumulative effects: the high
compressibility of the polypropylene fibers; and the weakening
of the stabilized matrix as a result of the physical presence of the
fibers, which may prevent the development of some cementi-
tious bonds, producing a composite material with lower strength
Fig. 12. Effect of binder quantity on the energy absorption capacity
and stiffness.
evaluated in the tests carried out before (UCS) and after (UCSpc)
5. The cyclic loading stage introduces changes in the postcyclic
the cyclic stage for the unreinforced and fiber-reinforced stabilized
stress–strain behavior characterized by an increase in the postcy-
samples.
clic unconfined compressive strength and the energy absorption

© ASCE 04023392-9 J. Mater. Civ. Eng.

J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 2023, 35(11): 04023392

 capacity of the composite materials. The increase in the postcyclic
unconfined compressive strength is more significant with lower
binder quantities that have greater deformations during the cyclic
stage, i.e., in which the strain-hardening effect seems to be more
pronounced. The addition of fibers leads to an increase in the en-
ergy absorption capacity, which may be explained by the fact that
the deformations occurring during the cyclic loading allow an ear-
lier mobilization of the fibers as the UCSpc test proceeds.
Any extrapolation to experimental conditions other than those
tested here should be made with caution. Moreover, additional tests
should be performed before using in practice the results pre-
sented here.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the
study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable
request.
Acknowledgments
The authors express their thanks to CIMPOR and Biu International
for supplying the binders and the fibers, and to the institutions that
financially supported the research: Individual Research Grant
2021.05748.BD, Project Research Grant FCT (PTDC/ECI-CON/
28382/2017), and the R&D Units CIEPQPF (UIDB/00102/
2020), ISISE (UIDB/04029/2020), and ACIV.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
Mu = undrained resilient modulus (kPa);
qu = unconfined compressive stress or undrained deviatoric
stress (kPa);
qu max = maximum unconfined compressive strength (kPa);
εa = axial strain (%);
εa accum = cumulative permanent (plastic) axial strain (%); and
εa failure = axial strain at failure (%).
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